play, the gang of six meeting now with house democrats to go over their version. while senate majority leader harry reid says the ball in the the house's court. >> we cannot default on our debt. we many the senate can have the greatest ideas in the world, if they're not accepted in the house, we can't extend a debt ceiling. in the house, a war of words erupts as the debt debate gets personal for south florida's members. with us this hour live from capitol hill democratic party chair debbie wasserman schultz and senators chuck schumer. facing the heat, british prime minister david cameron gets his turn before a raucous and raudy emergency session of parliament in question time. >> on the decision to hire him, i believe i've answered every question about this. it was my decision. hold on -- it was my decision, i take responsibility.

people -- >> i apologize for interrupting the prime minister, the house must come in order. and what about the man at the center of this media empire? did rupert murdoch's performance help or hurt? even the "the wall street journal" reports investors are asking has the media mogul passed his cellgate? zbld day, i'm andrea mitchell live on capitol hill today. the president is going to hold a white house meeting with democratic leaders less than two hours from now. this after a gang of six made an 11th hour pitch to save budget talks. senate leaders say it may be too little too late. with us senators. thanks so much. a number of republicans have now come on board and endorsed the idea of some revenue measures, some of the proposals the ideas in the gng of six as a starting point. lamar alexander came on board. what say of you? >> i'm concerned about this

approach. i'm concerned at several levels. one, it looks like -- it's hard to understand because there's a little bit of a lack of spes fitsity still. there's no legislative language. it looks like what could be a pretty big tax increase. the spending cuts i think are highly uncertain. it instructs the various committees of the senate and the house to come up with these spending cuts. we have no assurance that they will do that. we have no idea how they'll do that. then we asked the senate to vote on that. all of which suggests to me there are a number of ways in which this could fall apart. i give these guys all the credit in the world for really struggling and trying to make some progress on a tough issue. there's no assurance that it results in an outcome. if we can't agree on spending cuts now, why should we suppose at the end of this process which after all has been available to us for two years the senate won't even pass a budget, why we think that this will result in real spending cuts is not clear to me. >> the other dynamic here is the

mcconnell-reid proposal. that is going to get to the floor at some point. now the idea of being that the gang of six proposal is too late to be scored by cbo to really be put into legislative language with only 13 days to go. there is this emergency fall back measure, whatever you want to call it. which would have some teeth in it because down the road the president would be forced to make some tough decisions. >> the read-mcconnell? i disagree. >> you're against it right now. >> >> look what it does, it empowers the president to raise the debt limit on his own. he would be required to make some recommendations about spending cuts, but it would not be binding. there's nothing that's assured about an outcome here except a higher debt ceiling increase. this is what the president's wanted from the beginning. a debt limit increase with no conditions. but i just don't think that that's acceptable.

i think actually we could be in for big, big trouble if we raise the debt limit without spending. >> 62% of americans in the latest nbc "the wall street journal" poll say that you're in more trouble if you don't raise revenues. that fkt the debt ceiling should be raised. >> i've always said the debt ceiling needs to be raised at some point. the question is do we just go ahead and do it without fixing the path that we're on? >> if it's too late to fix the path, permanently, to do the big deal right now, you've got 13 days, the markets, the bond markets, we've had all these warnings. >> the ratings services, the markets are not so much worried about what happens on august 3rd. what they're worried about is whether we're going to start to fix the fiscal imbalance that we have. whether we're going to correct this problem. >> what about the fact that according to our polling at least the president seems to be winning the message war and

explaining to americans it is important to do something about taxes. >> the president has done a good job mischaracterizing republicans and what we're about. i think that changed last night. last night the house voted for a bill that says mr. president here's the full debt limit increase that you asked for provided om that you help us reach a balanced budget. i think that's an extremely reasonable position to take. >> it's not going to pass the senate. >> why do we assume? i was told it couldn't pass the house a few weeks ago. i was told repeatedly that there's nothing. >> let me ask you hypothetically, once it's voted on, let's assume it doesn't pass the senate, would you move on to some sort of compromise and consider mcconnell-reid? >> i'm not going to walk away from what just passed the house and ask the president a simple question. the president has said catastrophe will result if we don't raise the debt limit. the house has offered him the debt limit increase he wants provided he will join us on putting the government on a path to a balanced budget.

why can't the president accept a path a balance? president clinton did and achieved it with republicans in congress. i think we should be flexible about the timing of it, about level of spending caps, which things get capped, how. all of those things are responsible topics for negotiation. why does the president so oppose reaching a balanced budget over time that he's willing to thrust the country into this chaos? that's a question i'd like to hear an answer for. >> you're going to get that answer, i think from the white house. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> it's good to see you senator. the new nbc news "the wall street journal" poll shows some growing support for raising the debt ceiling. 59% of americans are in favor of it up from 46% a month ago. for more on the poll john harwood joining us also here in the capitol. let's talk first of all about what the nath was just saying. the objections to the balanced budget amendment from the white house and from the democrats have to do with the internal mechanisms there because it

requires deeper cuts within the balanced budget proposal than the democrats want? >> exactly. and democrats say that this is going to force deeper cuts in medicare as well as social security that were contained in the paul ryan budget. we saw in the new york special election that is not a winning message politically, the message of our poll is notwithstanding what the senator just said, he is increasingly isolated and at republicans who follow him are at risk of being on the wrong side of independent voters that's why mitch mcconnell stepped forward to say we're getting ourselves on the wrong message heading into the 2012 election and we need to come up with a fail safe, a lifeline an out on the debt limit and you saw that in spades yesterday when a whole bunch of republican senators embraced the gang of six and crossed that rubicon to say yes, we need revenues that's a way out of this. >> then, of course the problem reverts to the house. we saw that senator reid said on

the floor na the ball is now in the house's court. we don't know whether john boehner can bring any of his members or enough of his members along. our poll also as you know says that when asked should democrats cut sbiet legitimates 52% said a clear majority said no. >> look, both parties are crossways with their base on some elements of this proposal. but the upshot of our poll is that democrats are more aligned with independents now than republicans are. what that means is that republican members of the house are squeezed between primary voters, their base activists who don't want them to compromise and general election voters who do want them to compromise. it may not matter for a lot of house members because they've got safe districts. they're not going to face challenges, but the party as a whole has a big problem there. that's why john boehner's trying to solve that problem. why mitch mcconnell's trying to solve that problem. there's still a chance they can do that using this

mcconnell-reid proposal hoping that the gang of six puts a little wind in their sails in terms of breaching the idea of revenues that would allow democrats to go along as well. >> you hear more cautious optimism on capitol hill than we heard maybe 24, 48 hours ago because more republicans in the senate did talk about taxes. but we're still a long way to go before the house goes along before they get anything completely passed. >> you know harwood, thank you very much. on capitol hill there are three budget plans now in play. the big two the new gang of six proposal we've been talking about and the president's so-called grand bargain. barring that there is the mcconnell-reid fall back option if tick get through the house and is that the the big if. msnbc's capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell is here. >> i'm so thrilled to have you here. we need you here more often in person. >> this is really a huge play. john boehner has to bring along his republicans he's not going to do it without democrats.

nancy pelosi is a key player now. >> absolutely. one of the things we've been hearing from john boehner is he will refer to all of this as it must be bipartisan. which is code for i need democrats to help me on this. one of the challenges have been what can nancy pelosi do and steny hoyer who are able to count their votes effectively when they ran the house and need a way to get this done for the president. one of the things the aides have said to me the ideas are imembraced by the senate or president the harder it is to sell to the house republicans. it looks too washington. that's really tough at some point an idea has to be embraced. the fewer minutes left on the clock the greater the chance of some final deal. >> what i'm hearing is there isn't enough time for the congressional budget office to quote score the gang of six proposal. it would take weeks and weeks to go through all of those tax proposals so that's not going to get done by august 2nd. in fact, there's going to be

most likely a senate vote on sunday on mcconnell-reid and a final vote by tuesday on mcconnell-reid assuming that they can get the 60 votes and get everybody whipped into shape. >> there was a sugar high around here when you saw bipartisanship breaking out where people thought this gang of six idea could immediately be voted upon. it doesn't work that way. it's one of the reasons there's been a muted response from leader reid and mitch mcconnell. they knew that it can't be done that fast. people liked the spirit of turning the corner. that calendar you laid out is what were hearing as well. it would go down to the wire. they're hoping that they can keep this idea of some of the things where people have moved and hold them to that and keep the conversation going. >> kelly o'donnell, thanks for letting us come by. >> great to see you. we're live on capitol hill this hour. democratic party chairman debbie wasserman schultz and senator chuck schumer are going to be joining us. how about the budget battle at

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in memphis, the school board has decided to delay the start of the school year indefinitely. the board says that until the city makes good on $55 million of promised tax revenues set aside for schools, kids in memphis will have to stay home. coming up on news nation, tamron hall will talk to the memphis city council chairman about all of this. in minnesota the 20-day government shut down that has crippled the state is over. governor mark davis signed a new budget today and officially ended the longest government shut down in this country in more than a decade. the deficit crisis is impacting

several individual states like minnesota have been dealing with a lot of problems on their own. virginia used to be unwith of them. but today announced a budget surplus for the second straight year. that announcement coming up in about an hour. we're joined by virginia's governor box mcdonell. congratulations on your surplus? second time in a year? skekd year in a row? >> $311 million revenues. that's right of revenue surplus. when we get to say these numbers in the next couple of weeks it will be more than that. we decided last year in virginia to cut spending back to 2007 levels, not raise taxes. focus on job creation and now we see the revenue's coming in. i think that's the whey to govern. we just finished with a bipartisan budget passed unanimously. >> there is some criticism from the other side of the aisle. some say you took the money from pension funds and moved thins around and some of the cuts were not specified.

some of the cuts were too deep into special services. >> well, i'd say they're flat wrong. they don't understand math. this is revenues over projections. that's a surplus. yes, we made cuts. government at every level has gotten too big, too bureaucratic, have overpromised and overdelivered. that's quite evident in washington, d.c. we had done some of that in virginia. listen, the proof is in the pudding. we got the third lowest unemployment rate east of the mississippi. businesses are coming to virginia. we're the most business friendly state in america. i think we're on the right track. i think we've got a bipartisan agreement on the budget. i think we're doing the right thing. >> here, you've done everything right, and because of the federal deficit, the debt ceiling showdown which is not resolved, moody's is now threat ang number of states including virginia with a downgrade which has extraordinary impact. what is your reaction to this

threat to downgrade virginia because of what's happening at the national level? >> we're exasperated with washington. they do things so much differently than governs. we have to balance budget,s, get things done on time, can't borrow massive amounts of money, yet that's what they've been doing in washington. the president can't produce a budget that his own party supports. we're $14 trillion in debt heading towards the highest debt level since the end of the second world war. now because they downgraded put washington on the watch list, virginia yesterday with the triple aaa bond rating for 75 years is now put on moody's credit watch. we're really unhappy about that. washington needs to fix the toxic environment. find ways to get that done. they ought to do it through spending cuts. the bottom line is they've got to get this done. for the greatest country in the world to be on the brink of not paying its bills is embarrassing. >> what do you say to fellow republicans who are dead set

against any revenue measures, not tax increase es per se, but even changes in the tax code. in being set against that, they're going against the findings in your latest nbc news "the wall street journal" poll where a good healthy majority of americans want some taxes as part of the mix in order to get this thing resolved. >> the path we chose in virginia was solely spending cuts. focused on job creation. grow by growth not by more taxes. >> understandably at the national level the argument is that we have entitlements with interest on the debt with all the other things that are locked in place that without revenues you're not going to get to the $2.7 trillion plus that is necessary to be credible with the rating services. >> andrea, the problem is they don't have the courage to make the tough decisions. that's what we did in virginia. in a perfect world we'd get this thing fixed in washington solely through spending cuts, dramatic entitlement reforms. we overpromised, overdelivered

and now the bills are due. the practical reality is you have a democrat senate, republican house and it's not going to get done. when it's affecting states now, it's creating great uncertainty. there's massive unhappiness with the federal government generally over its inability to do the basic things that government needs to do. there's got to be a compromise. i'm not going to tell them how to do it. i suggest they try spending cuts. but they've got to get this done immediately or the uncertainty for the business community is going to be just devastating to our country. >> message delivered. the question is whether it's been heard. great to see you again, governor. thanks for joining us today. >> thanks, andrea, i appreciate it. >> many the politico briefing coming up today, is all this talk about michele bachmann's migraines sexist? plus david cameron combative british parliament. >> order -- i say the same to members who are now heckling.

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[ male announcer ] if you find a lower rate on a room you've booked, we won't just match it. we'll give you $50 towards your next trip. [ gnome ] it's go time. michele bachmann is doing well. in fact, surging in our latest nbc news "the wall street journal" poll. bachmann has moved into second place in the republican field with support from 16% of republican primary voters trailing only mitt romney. only a month ago she is polling at 3%. jim joins us now. to what do you attribute back map's success so far? at least in these early polls? >> i think it started with her performance in that first presidential debate. it's continued as she's spent a lot of time in iowa. gotten a lot of national attention. she's very appealing to staunch conservatives. there's always been room in this race for a staunch conservative. she filled that void. newt gingrich didn't fill it. sarah palin never got it.

newt never took off. huckabee never got in. she filled that void. not only is she running number two in your poll, more importantly she's usually winning or running number two in iowa. the key for her is can she win iowa. if she does, it doesn't matter what mainstream media thinks of her, she will be a formidable force in this campaign. >> i wanted to ask you also about this whole issue of her health. now, the genesis of this was the daily caller. why don't you deconstruct how this came out. it clearly came from opposition research probably from another campaign. it had to do with the fact that she takes medication for migraines, for headaches. >> it's clear it was a competitive story. it's clear abc was working on it. the daily caller was the first to write it that's a conservative website and ors were tracking down this story. it seems pretty clear it came largely from former staffers people that have worked with her and seen the ramifications of

these chronic headaches that she's had in the past that can be quite debilitating and keep her off the floor from having votes. keep her off the campaign trail from doing events. this came out, it's obviously been a big story for the last couple of days. the big question is how big of a health issue is this for her. clearly she lives a pretty aggressive lifestyle. she's out there campaigning, raising money, doing politics all the time. despite having the chronic headaches she's been quite active. if that's the case, i think it's a short-term story that's a minor inconvenience for her and probably won't have a big effect on her standing with conservatives. again, her appeal is her voting record. we had her putting a statement out today that she's not going to vote at all to lift the debt ceiling. that puts her on the far, far right of her party. there's a lot of tea party activists who love that fighting spirit out of her. i think that's one of the many reasons she's going to be a force for some time. >> jim, let me ask you, we had a republican nominee who had had multiple bouts with mel know na

a very serious cancer. we had a vice presidential nominee who had four heart attacks. how does that compare with taking medicare for headache? a lot of women suffer from this condition and function quite well are wondering while the big deal about michele bachmann this early in the game when you've had candidates running for office with far more serious conditions? >> one of my colleagues asked that a half-hour ago. let's hear about all the ailments that the other male candidates might have in this race. newt gingrich heart problems, does mitt romney have any health issues. why are we focussing on this? that's why at the end of the day which if she has chronic headaches, they're severe, they can cut short your ability to do dings in the short-term, unless it's affecting her ability to be a candidate and ultimately be president of the united states. it's a health condition. many people have different health conditions. i think that's why it becomes a

short-term story unless there was a lot more to it and there's no reason to think that there is. >> thank you so much. >> take care. coming up next, senator chuck schumer head of the democratic policy committee is joining us on this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" live from capitol hill. [ male announcer ] this is lisa, who tries to stay ahead of her class.

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her doctor recommended aleve because it can relieve pain all day with just two pills. this is lisa... who switched to aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. topping the headlinings right now on "andrea mitchell reports," 32 states from north dakota to new york now remain under a heat advisory today. the dangerous heat and humidity are pushing temperatures past 100 degrees today in several states. today marks the last full day in orbit for space shuttle "atlantis." and a very special day for nasa. today is the 42nd anniversary of neil armstrong's first walk on the moon. "atlantis" is set to land at kennedy space center early tomorrow morning. today apple reported its best quarter ever. the company's profit doubled after selling more than 20 million phones, iphone, and nine

million ie pads. in new york city, all same-sex couples hoping to get married this sunday the first day it's legal will have to enter a lottery. so many people wanted to tie the knot that the clerk's office is overloaded. the mayor has announced that only 764 marriage licenses will be issued. those couples who don't make the cut will have to try again next week. in a wild emergency session of parliament today british p.m. david cameron promised a government investigation into the cell phone hacking scandal. cameron himself is under fire for hiring a former news of the world editor as one of his senior aides. >> mr. speaker, this can't be put down to gross incompetence. it was a deliberate attempt to hide the facts about mr. coulson. >> order. order. members shouting out shouldn't be doing so.

they must calm themselves. keep on an even keel. it's better for their health and for the house. >> of course, i regret and am extremely sorry about the fury it has caused. with 20/20 hindsight and all that has followed i would not have offered him the job and i expect he wouldn't have taken it. >> martin fletcher is live in london. martin, extraordinary. spell binding. those of us who love question time anyway we're in overdrive today. what is the net effect of this now for david cameron politically? >> well, there's been speculation about whether he could survive this. that speculation is probably misplaced. there's no real danger to himself or his government and there's no suggestion that he's been involved in any crime, not yet, anyway. there's a real passionate response to the question who he too close to the executives of news international. in particular the question about the quote you just played about whether he was wrong to hire as

his head of communications andy coulson who was a former editor of "the news of the world" at a time when it was suspected he was involved with the phone hacking. cameron rejected all advice and insisted on hiring him. he then resigned and lab arrested. come ran's very much under attack for his poor judgment at this time. >> it's all been so interesting and certainly not going to end here. thank you so much, martin. great to see you from london. >> we are live this hour here on capitol hill where they could use the speaker they had in parliament with the deadline approaching democrats might need some order facing a major test in the debt debate themselves. new york senator chuck schumer serves on the finance and banking committees and joins me now. senator -- >> good afternoon. we have a lot to deal with, but enough. >> first of all, in our own polling it showings that democrats are facing a lot of

criticism for being willing to take on entitlement cuts. 62% want republicans to do something on the revenue side and a majority does want the debt ceiling to be raised, people are not happy with any cuts in those sacred programs. >> as you know, the president put some of them on the disable. there are a lot number of democrats who have talked about look, if necessary we'll look at those, the real barrier is not democrats, it's republicans insisting that there not be a single revenue piece on the table. the poll in your poll and all the polls i've seen, the public wants a mixture of both. democrats are willing to go for a mixture of spending cuts, revenues, republicans are not except maybe now we may have a little bit of a breakthrough with this group of six. >> with the group of six proposal and the fact that some prominent republicans came on board to the idea of some revenues that does grease the wheels, but too late. as i understand it, the congressional budget office can't score all of these

proposals in time for august 2nd. some fall back. some combination of mcconnell-reid. >> the mcconnell-reid plan which does deal with the debt crisis by august 2nd is the operative piece of legislation that's on the floor. now whether it can incorporate some other things down the road we go further, that's remains to be seen. that's being discussed among the leadership of both parties and the white house. >> part of this is a mechanical problem with the time running out. you guy haves to vote on the senate on this cut, cap and balance amendment which by all reports is not going to have a majority many the senate. it's not going to have the 60 votes needed in fact to get through. >> it's not -- >> you have to vote on that first. that's a friday vote. >> we have to vote on it because the republicans are insisting -- we're willing to have a vote on it. i doubt it will get a democrat vote. there may be a few republicans that won't vote for it. it decimates, medicare, social

security. it's the most unrealistic piece of legislation i've seen and it's for show. why are we taking until the weekend on it? the reason's very simple. there are a number of republicans who are using every procedural device to hold it up. this is really theater. we have a serious problem that we haven't solved yet that's two weeks away. >> what would you like to have happen? >> it's not going to win. it's political theater. it decimates things like medicare and social security. >> you want unanimous consent? >> have the vote today or tomorrow and let's move on to the real issue which is figuring out a bipartisan compromise that will avoi us from not paying our debt which will hurt america for a decade and in a severe way. >> at this stage, what is going to take place? is it mcconnell-reid that's going to take place over the weekend? >> first, we hope we can persuade some republicans to let us move to get this cap.

>> if you can get it through the senate, what do you do with the house? >> the mcconnell-reid, speaker boehner and the republicans on the house side have to realize, you know, scores of them have said we don't care. we want to let the debt ceiling lapse. as the american people learn how serious the consequences are, again, their views are changing. originally they said, let it lapse. i had a feeling a lot of people thought it had something to do with news spending. it -- new spending. it doesn't. the american people are now seeing you can't let it lapse. not only will it increase the deficit by raising interest rates to the government. if you have a mortgage, it will raise your mortgage rates. if you've got car payments it will raise your car payments. if you've got credit card debt, it will raise your credit card debt. could throw us back into recession. the house republican haves to have a dose of reality. they have to be walking and living and breathing on the same planet that we are. that means allowing debt not to be paid. allowing us -- allowing the debt

ceiling to not be raised or preventing the debt ceiling from being raised is disaster. and they've got to get with it. >> senator chuck schumer. thank you very much. great to see you. >> my pleasure. for more on the competing plans to weal the the debt, let's bring in david walker former u.s. controller general and founder of the come back america initiative. good to see you. first of all, you have a tougher preeventive strike that -- preemptive strike than what has been proposed. would mcconnell-reid be at least a short-term solution to get things going past august 2nd? is that a logical solution right now is this. >> i really don't believe mcconnell-reid would be viewed as credible by the credit rating sagtsys, our lenders or the american people. it could be if it was coupled with specific targets, triggers and automatic enforcement mechanisms that calls for a certain amount of reduction in

the deficit by the end of 2013. or certain amounts of -- with automatic enforcement mechanisms, three part spending cuts, one part temporary revenue increases in those targets and triggers happen. i think we need to do something like that in order to add credibility. the report that we released this morning we have $3 trillion in cuts without any tax increases, coupled with those types of fail safe mechanisms. >> how would you get those -- what is referred to as pay go measures to really put teeth in it, to put caps on so that you could not go beyond the spending that's been outlined? >> there's several elements. one is pay as you go. that keeps you from digging the hole deeper. it keeps you from expanding programs or make new tax cuts when you've done more than you can afford. you need discretionary spending caps that have automatic enforcement mechanisms.

you need to put it in law. you need supermajority requirements to override it. there are things that you can do. you can pass changes for example, in subsidies, for medicare, so that the well off aren't subsidized as much as they are right now. you can pass things that deal with the defense budget. you can pass things that change indexing for benefit programs. all these things can be done now that don't have to be comprehensive social security reform. you don't have to do comprehensive medicare reform. you don't have to do comprehensive tax reform. they're not going to get done until after the 2012 election. >> david, you've watched this kind of confrontation before, perhaps not this serious. what are the implications? you know the rating agencies, what are the implication ifs they do nothing before the august 2nd deadline? >> the real implication is that since we're spending $4 billion a day every day including more than we are taking in, the treasury department has to decide who to pay and who not to

pay. they have to decide every day. and the social security benefits are due on the third day of the month. so the question is whether or not we have enough money on the third day of the month to be able to make those payments. we'll make them, the question is will we make them on time. some people aren't going to get paid. if you have the largest economy on earth, the world's sole super power and the reserve currency having to decide what bill it's going to pay and not pay, it's going to hurt our press teemg, drive up interest rates. we just don't know how much. >> david walker, thank you very much. >> good to be with you, andrea. up next, democratic party chair debbie wasserman schultz2 the war of words with florida freshman allen west. of revolutionary mobile apps to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing.

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party, now they're playing a major part in the debate over the et dchl some are saying move over tea party, now the tequila party, i'm not kidding, the tequila party wants to shake up the next presidential election. who are the members of this tequila party and why they feel they can influence the 2012 race. they are serious. plus, several former nfl players and their wives have filed a lawsuit laming the league knew of the dangers of concussions for decades and concealed that information from its players. what impact would this have on the nfl and its fans? all the infighting over the debt limit has taken an uglier turn in the house. florida freshman republican allen west has issued a scathing attack on democratic house member debbie wasserman schultz after she spoke on the floor on tuesday. watch. >> incredulously the gentleman from florida who represents thousands of medicare beneficiaries as do i is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for

medicare beneficiaries. unbelievable from a member from south florida. >> congressman west fired off an email to the leadership calling the congresswoman quote, the most vile, unprofessional and despicable member of the u.s. house of representatives. and there was more. chairwoman of the dnc is with us also the democratic captain of the congressional women's softball team. >> more importantly. >> what is your response to congressman west? >> i have to tell you i was unfazed by his email. it's not surprising that given the pressure that the republicans are facing, they're defending ending medicare as we know it. congressman west represents thousands of senior citizens which is what i was pointing out and they would face significant increased costs due to the medicare plan and. it's not surprising he would

crack under the pressure of having to defend that. it's as a constituent of mine, i can -- >> he lives in your district? >> he lives in your district. as a toournt of mine i think it's important for him to understand that when yer in debate on house floor members are going to go back and forth. if he feels that concerned and gets that churnd up over having to defend his position, he should reconsider his decision. >> he said you are characterless and proven repeat lid that you are not a lady and therefore afforded due respect from me. this is a personal level of exchange that i haven't seen before among members of congress. >> i think republicans like him are under a tremendous amount of pressure. they have about the worst position you could have when it comes to making sure that we protect seniors and ensure that their costs don't go up. balancing that instead of what they're doing which is

channoning -- championing and protecting the millionaires and billionaires tax breaks. there was a little bit of heat applied on debate on the house floor yesterday. he doesn't appear to be able to deal with it. like i said, he should reconsider his really unacceptable position particularly as it relates when you represent thousands of south florida seniors like we do so maybe next time he won't react so defensively. >> you yourself are going to have to consider some medicare and medicaid cuts down the road. these are not popular positions for you especially coming from florida, nor for any democrat. you're prepared to support what may emerge from the senate. >> what we need to do is make sure that we can solve this big problem with a big solution. democrats have put all aur akred cows on the table including medicare and social security. >> can john boehner count on house democrat votes for whatever does emerge, a compromise measure that the

white house and senate work on. >> democrats have made a commitment that we want to solve the debt crisis. we want to make sure that the government doesn't default on our debt. we have not seen that same see senate reap caption and senate democrats working together to make sure house democrats have been at table ready to make a big deal, support president obama's efforts to make a big deal, and we've been fighting to protect medicare, protect medicare benefits, protect social security benefits. both programs' long-term solvency and like president obama has said we can do that in a way without cutting benefits to seen injuries. >> i want to ask you about michele bachmann because she's come out and said she will vote any debt ceiling raising measure, no matter what's in it. i'm sure you disagree with her on a lot of these issues, but i want to ask you about this attack on her for taking headache medicine. we've seen men run for national offense with melanoma, heart conditions, serious heart conditions. you yourself are a survivor. >> breast cancer survivor.

>> how do you feel about this attack on her for headache medication since it is something that does affect women, we're told, more than men? >> well -- >> is it an appropriate challenge to her as a presidential candidate? >> michele bachmann is being rightfully call out on her irresponsible position that from the beginning she's refused to support lifting the debt ceiling and preventing the nation from defaulting, but she should be called to account on the issues and her positions on those issues, and personal questions about how she deals with headaches, they are important in terms of answering the question about whether or not they affect her ability to do the job that she's seeking, but beyond that, they are not appropriate once she adequately answers that question, which i think any candidate for president should. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, andrea. >> good to see you. >> you, too. >> what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here. stay with us. my doctor told me calcium

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gee, so which political story will make head loins in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com chris cillizza joins us. we're talking about the debt ceiling motoring at the white house 50 minutes from now with democrats and the president. >> you're picked the right place, the halls of congress, president meeting with democrats, but to me the important people to watch, debbie wasserman schultz touched on this, house republicans. it's always been whether john boehner can wrangle his caucus, the tea party element of his caucus behind a deal that has any tax revenue increases. that's still the problem. some things haven't changed. >> and whether nancy pelosi can get her caucus behind voting for something with the entitlement cuts. >> absolutely. >> more tomorrow. thanks, chris, so much. that does it for us for this

special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" live from the hill. tomorrow on the show, house budget chairman paul ryan, joining us, among other guests. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "newsnation." >> hi, andrea, great show. in our next hour, why this heat wave is being called a heat dome. not only is it taking a toll on our bodies but roads and interstates buckling under the pressure of this intense heat. what states will be -- what most of the states will be feeling through the weekend, and when is a heat dome and developing news in the next hour. president obama will meet with republican and democratic leaders yet again on the debt ceiling. we'll have the latest on where the talks stand. plus, you've heard of the tea party. now the tequila party. that is a real political party, and they want to affect the next presidential race. who are the members of this tequila party and why they want us to take them seriously. it's all next on "newsnation." a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. i've been around music my entire life.

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